Sunday, October 31, 2010

Who's The Better Fisher Man/Woman

This weekend we went up to the cabin with Nick and Robin. Nick wanted to get some fishing in, so we went late Saturday morning to Smith and Moorehouse Lake. It is only about a 10 minute drive from the cabin. Robin wasn't feeling to well so she stayed behind.

Nick with the lake behind him


I forgot to mention to Dave we were fishing. He didn't have his license on him, so he and Cosmo watched.


Me, I thought it was freezing with the wind blowing!


Cosmo is part bat


Nick with his little tiger trout, his only catch of the day.


Me with my catch of the day! A nicely sized rainbow trout, I didn't know they had fish this size in this lake.


Who would you say is the better fisher man/woman? :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jalapeño Poppers


I am starting to enjoy a little spice in my food, so I decided I would give these Jalapeño Poppers a try from the Pioneer Woman. Lets just say I had plenty of spice in my mouth! A little too much heat for me, so much so my eyes started to water. I used too thick of bacon also for these, but maybe that helped subdue the heat a little. Next time I make these I would use thinner bacon, and maybe give pickled jalapeños a try. I have been told pickled jalapeños aren't as hot as the fresh ones. These are a little time consuming but very easy to make. You'll wanna wear gloves while cleaning out the peppers. I was wearing gloves and still burned my forearm cause I was laying it in the bag I was discarding the insides of the peppers in. If you love some spice in your food you should definitely give these a try!


Jalapeño Poppers

20 whole Fresh Jalapenos, 2-3 Inches In Size
2 cubes Cream Cheese, softened
1 pound Thin(regular) Bacon, Sliced Into Thirds

If you have them, slip on some latex gloves for the pepper prep… Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane (the source of the heat; leave a little if you like things HOT). Smear softened cream cheese into each jalapeno half. Wrap jalapeno with bacon pieces (1/3 slice). Secure by sticking toothpick through the middle. (At this point, you can freeze them, uncooked, in a Ziploc bag for later use).
Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You don’t want the bacon to shrink so much it starts to the squeeze the jalapeno. If, after 20 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough, just turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off. These are best when the jalapeno still has a bit of bite to it.
Serve immediately, or they’re also great at room temperature.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pumpkin Carving

Every year my family carves a pumpkin for Halloween, this year Dave and I also carved pumpkins with our good friends the Rogersons. I only carved a pumpkin at the Rogersons, I nominated myself to take pictures while we carved at my parents. I also dug through the pumpkin goop so we could roast the pumpkin seeds. I think the pumpkins turned out great! Some are very original. :)


Dave cleaning out our pumpkins at the Rogersons


Nino and Dave


Camie and her pumpkin


Nino and his pumpkin


Dave with his pumpkin, he asked me what I saw when I look at his pumpkin cause he couldn't decide what to carve. I told him I saw a pumpkin, so he carved a mini pumpkin in his pumpkin. 


Me with my pumpkin, I carve the same face every year. I know I am so creative. 


Our pumpkins all aglow


My family cleaning out their pumpkins. Bart helped Shaylee carve hers, Stacey helped Chandler, and my Dad helped Caden.


Robin and Dave


My Father, oh how I love these photos of him


My Mom, she is so great to plan these fun activities for us to do.


Dave, he was the first one done with his pumpkin


So he helped me go through the pumpkin goop to find seeds


These made for good roasted pumpkin seeds


Robin with her toothy pumpkin


The Fro with his toothy pumpkin also


What do two toothy pumpkins and two people with a great sense of humor make? One classic picture!


Shaylee with her Trick or Treat pumpkin, she looks so cute in her dance outfit.


Chandler with his pumpkin. It is a devil, he sure posed cute for me! :)


Caden with his awesome witch pumpkin.


They turned out great!


The pumpkins in their glory! 
Its a little blurry my camera isn't the greatest with night pictures.


I think I am starting to enjoy Halloween more and more every year. Maybe next year I will even be excited about dressing up! Ha, who am I kidding lets not get carried away here. :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls


These cinnamon rolls were delicious! They give my Mom's rolls a run for her a money and my Mom makes the best cinnamon rolls ever! They have a maple syrup frosting on them instead of regular white frosting. I have been trying to make every recipe in The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. This recipe is a must try! They make a lot of cinnamon rolls, I got about 50. I gave a good part of them away or I would have ate them all. :)


Cinnamon Rolls
 
1 quart Whole Milk
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast 
8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
Plenty Of Melted Butter
2 cups Sugar
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

Maple Frosting:

1 bag Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
½ cups Milk 
¼ cups Melted Butter 
¼ cups Brewed Coffee (I didn't add this, I just added more milk till I got the consistency I wanted.) 
⅛ teaspoons Salt

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.
Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately 1 1/2 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.

Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 13 to 17 minutes. (Mine were done at 15.)
For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Chickens In The Yard

The other day my Dad decided to let the chickens run around our backyard. This was a first for them since they were chicks and that time I kept them confined to the little pen we have. Though they didn't wander very far the first time, they have been out since these pictures and are getting more brave to go to the other end if the yard. We are still working on getting them to get up to the wood pile. I am sure they would find lots of bugs to eat up there.









Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Some Pictures Of Fall At The Cabin

Fall is my favorite time of year, I love to see the leaves change colors and I enjoy fall weather. Here are some pictures up at the Harward Cabin, it is a beautiful place to be!




















We even saw a moose while we were up there!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Canned Peach Pie Filling

I love peach pie! Better yet I love my Mom's peach pie filling. So when I canned peaches this year, that is all I canned was peach pie filling. :)

 I used these lovely peaches I bought up in Brigham City from a produce stand. I had to wait a couple weeks for them to ripen.


Pure goodness right out of the processor!


 Look at all the peach pie I can make! Yummy!

This pie filling also works for apples as well.


Apple/Peach Pie Filling

Peel and slice fruit to fill jars approximately 3/4 full.

4 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt

Combine all of the above ingredients with 10 cups of cold water. Cook until thick and bubbly. Then add 1/2 cup lemon juice. Pour mixture over fruit and seal. Process for 20 minutes.

You should give this canning recipe a try! It can get sticky and messy but well worth it!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Roosting

Chickens LOVE to roost. Roosting is just sitting on something higher for long periods of time. We have two poles placed in the coop, one a littler lower to the ground and one a lot higher from the ground. "Bird" loves to jump up on the higher one when she gets to be in the coop. Since she isn't in there very often she roosts on top of the fenced in part of the chicken coop. They roost when they sleep too.











Monday, October 4, 2010

Dutch Oven Apple Pie

This "apple pie" was delicious! And it was a super easy recipe. We had it up at the cabin for brunch one day over labor day weekend, Bonnie had seen it on T.V. and thought it looked good. She made a wise choice printing this recipe off. :) I have made it twice since. 
Here is the recipe:

Dutch Oven Apple Pie

12 Rhodes cinnamon rolls, thawed but still cold
2 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional) (we didn't put nuts in ours)
2 packets cream cheese frosting (comes with rolls)
1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping

Cut each roll into 4 pieces and arrange in the bottom of a 12 inch dutch oven lined with aluminum foil or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, cracker crumbs and pecans. Sprinkle evenly over cut rolls. Cover with lid and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. (I had to cook mine for 45 minutes.)

For icing, combine cream cheese frosting with caramel topping. Drizzle over pie while still warm.

If using briquettes, 16 on top of dutch oven, 8 on bottom.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Pears

My Dad started mowing our good friends the Barwick's yard, so he found out they have a pear tree in their backyard. He asked Bob if he would be willing to let us have some to bottle. Bob was more than willing to give us some, he is the only one in the family that likes them so he had more than he could eat. 

This is the pear tree





We were able to get two full boxes of pears, and Bob was generous enough to throw in a spaghetti squash.


This is Bob, he is such a nice guy!


Bottled pears! 

Thanks Bob for letting us enjoy these wonderful pears!